Friday, July 29, 2011

Many modern blog platforms (most of them actually) let you publish data by email. You can just send an email to some service address and platform transforms it into a new post. For example, in Posterous you can send data to post@your_blog.posterours.com, in Friendfeed it was share@friendfeed.com, in Blogger you can set address in Settings->Email&Mobile tab, Facebook can update status by email too (see http://www.facebook.com/mobile/) etc.

Our updated Geo Post mashup helps you add location info to such emails. All you need is set an email address for update and get back a customized version of Mobile map mashup, that lets you send email updates to the provided address. Simply save short URL provided by GeoPost mashup in your mobile browser bookmarks or load it via generated QR code.

And just because Mobile map lets you share location info via SMS too (e.g. on Android platform), GeoPost lets you set also a predefined phone number for SMS. All in all – it is a configuration tool for Geo Messages.

Thursday, July 21, 2011

QRpon offers a specialized CMS (content management system) that lets any business create a special mobile web site. This web site lets users automatically, just after confirming the identity, post business-defined information on the Facebook's wall. In the exchange for this posting (action) mobile web site will show a confirmation for the benefits. E.g. coupon, discount info etc. In other words - anything that could be presented to the staff on the business side for claiming the benefits.
How to present that created mobile site for the potential users? It is where QR-codes help us. CMS lets businesses create mobile web site and an appropriate QR-code. Because it is mobile web (HTML5) application there is no need for downloading. Just scan QR-code and get URL opened.

Automatically, this approach obviously supports also physical check-ins. There is no way to mark you "at this location" being actually nearby (based on GPS location) or even far away (via API). QR-code should be scanned, and it is a physical action that could be performed on-site only.

So for the business this approach offered a mobile web site (sites – business can create more than one site, update them often etc.), presented on-site with QR-code sticker, that lets visitors exchange posting in the social network (e.g. Facebook’s wall) for some benefits. And all site's aspects (what is presented on the site, what should be posted to the social network, what should be presented as a confirmation) are defined by the businesses themselves. Another possible explanation – try to think about the current check-in system (e.g. Foursquare) and just replace the standard posting (notice) from Foursquare with your own text. Obviously your potential users do not need to download (install) mobile application and do not need to register in some new service (beyond their Facebook accounts). And another important difference from Foursquare (Facebook, Twitter etc.) check-ins – the need for the physical presence.

Tuesday, July 19, 2011

Our Geo messages project has been updated. Lets you share location info on the peer to peer basic as a signature to the standard messages (email, SMS).

Lets us highlight again the basic moments. It is well known fact that the question "where are you" is one of the most often asked in the world of mobile communications. 600 billion text messages per year in the US ask "where are you?" – as per Location Business Summit 2010 data. A huge amount of mobile services is actually being built around this question so their main feature is user’s locations exchange. In the most cases it is implemented as the ability for the mobile user (mobile phone owner) write down own location info in the some special place (special mobile application). But it means of course, that user must be registered in location-sharing service (e.g. download some special application). And what is even more important – everyone who needs this information must use the same service too.

Typically we have now two models for location sharing in services. At the first hand it is passive location monitoring and future access to the accumulated data trough some API. It is Google Latitude for example.
Possible problems are privacy - some third party tool is constantly monitoring my location and what is more important – saves it on the some external server as well as the shorted life time for handset’s battery.

Another popular model for location sharing is check-in procedure in the various forms. Check-in could be an active (e.g. Foursquare), when user directly sets his/her current location or passive (e.g. Twitter) when location info could be added to the current message (status). But here we can see not only privacy issue - all my friends/followers can see my location but also a noise issue – my location info could be actually interested only for the physical friends. For the majority of followers my location info (e.g. Foursquare status in Twitter time line) is just a noise.

Our idea of the signed geo messages service (geo mail, geo sms) based on the adding user’s location info to the standard messages like SMS or email. Just as a signature. So with this service for telling somebody "where I am" it would be just enough to send him/her a message. And your partner does not need to use any additional service in order to get information about your location. He/she will simply read SMS or email.

It is obviously peer to peer sharing and does not require any social network. Our location signature has got a form of the link to some mobile map with the marker at the shared location. And what is important here – the map itself has no information about the sender and recipient. That information exists only in the message itself. The map (marker) has no information about the creator for example. That is all about privacy.

There are several implementations for this approach: mobile web mashups (HTML5), mobile web widgets, Java Card applets for legacy phones, JME midlet for mobile Java phones as well as solutions for web applications.

Wednesday, July 13, 2011

Usually, Twitter + Maps always mean mapping twits and show them on the map. Yes, we have such mashups too (see for example, Photo map или Local twitter). But here everything is vice versa. It is just a reverse task.

Suppose you are reading a great geo-located twit. Just a status associated with some place (location). In Twitter's web client you can see that place and an appropriate icon just below the message. How to get that place info and save/bookmark it on your phone? It is what our mashup - Places from Twitter is for.

The usage is simple. Just open in Twitter’s web interface any geo-enabled twit and copy its URL to mashup’s form. Also you can save the following link Place from Twitter in your bookmarks and simply select that bookmark on any opened page with geo-enabled twit (it is so called bookmarklet).

And of course, any QR code created with this mashup could be placed anywhere – on your site/blog, Facebook wall etc. You can even print it and place on the physical wall. Mashup provides HTML code you need for embedding QR code image.

Monday, July 11, 2011

Our mashup Annotated links has been updated. Lets you pack together some link (collection of links) and your comment in the form of post-it note. Mashup creates a short URL that you can publish on your site (blog) or share it via email, Twitter, Facebook.

Mashup also provides a simple REST API, so you can create your commented links programmatically.

You can use mashup either directly or via an appropriate bookmarklet from our collection.

Saturday, July 09, 2011

Friday, July 08, 2011

Our mashup Protected notes has been updated. Lets you create and share (twitter, email, facebook) password protected text notes (remarks). The idea is to let you share private notes via the public sources. For example, update your Twitter status (public account) so the only selected readers will be able to read that. And authorized users can delete notes too.

You can attach some file to your note. So, the authorized users only will be able to download it.

This new version supports REST API also. Now you can create the password protected text notes right from your applications via the simple HTTP request.

Also you can directly add to your dynamic pages links to this mashup with the pre-populated text (a-la 'share this', 'twit this' etc.). The format for the hyperlink is this:

Thursday, July 07, 2011

Our mashup Secure Notes has been updated. Service lets you create (and share via Twitter, email or Facebook) self destroyed text notes. Each note will be automatically deleted right after the first opening (reading).

You can attach some file to your note. It will be deleted automatically too after the first downloading. Additionally, you can protect your note with password.

This new version supports also REST API. So now you can create such notes right from your web applications with plain HTTP requests.

Wednesday, July 06, 2011

Mashup lets you create mobile web page with QR code that presents your name and photo from Facebook. This mobile web page could be simply bookmarked (saved) right on your mobile phone. You can present (show) this QR code (opened mobile page) on the some check-in point (gate etc). QR code could be scanned right from your phone and your ID could be checked. You can see screenshots for the process here: how to confirm your identity with Facebook.

ID Card (mobile web page) contains a link to your Facebook profile. So this mashup could be used also as a quick way for telling about your Facebook page to other people.

Tuesday, July 05, 2011

What kind of object (real or virtual) can we use for joining together mobile users? We are not talking here about social networks members. We are looking a way for creating group chat. Here, for example, is a short list for several our applications:

City forum - discussions (forums) linked to places (POI - point of interest)Geo forum - the similar to above (also mobile forums) but linked to locationMobile forum - lets you add discussions to any physical object.City chat - web chat linked to any POI (point of interest)Geo chat - web chat linked to some location

And here is a new idea - WiFiChat. Forum and chat linked to some WiFi network. It is a mobile application that lets you see available (visible) Wi-Fi networks and link (attach) discussions and chats to them. We are not talking about connecting to WiFi networks. We are using WiFi network just as a sensor. If you can see it from your mobile, you are somewhere near. We can call it WiFi proximity. That is an idea. All people seeing the same network are in the some proximity. So, they could have some common points for the discussions.

Just one interesting remark – WiFi access point could be opened right on the mobile phone. And with WiFiChat application this phone will play a role of presence sensor uniting (combining together) local people for the communications.

Monday, July 04, 2011

Our mashup Social Graph Directory has been updated. Lets you present your Social Graph info (friend’s data) in the simple tabular form. Do you have contacts in particular company, city etc.? Also it lets you see additional info about your friends (WHOIS for Facebook).

Sunday, July 03, 2011

Our mashup Twitter location has been updated. It lets you publish geo-related information to Twitter. It is not about geo tagging in Twitter. Actually users do not need to geo-enable their accounts. Twitter location is just a way for publish messages (statuses) with some geo-related data. Click on the map and mashup will prepare for you a link to appropriate Google Map.
The goal is very clean – simplify Twitter publishing for messages (statuses) where location info (place) is important.
Mashup does not request any authorization, the actual publishing will be performed via the standard Twitter client.

You can pass the following optional parameters to the basic URL:

lat - an initial latitude (where to show the map)lng - an initial longitudezml - an initial zoom levelt - a message that will be added to any published status

For example, suppose we are creating some information system that collects information for discounts. We can choose a hash tag #discount and use the following URL for publishing locations with discounts:

http://twitloc.linkstore.ru?t=%23discount

(%23 – is just encoded #).

Etc.

A reference to the map will be published in the mobile-friendly format. We are using Mobile map here.

Saturday, July 02, 2011

Our mobile web-mashup (HTML5) Geo Twit has been updated. It lets you publish a link to your current location in Twitter timeline right from the phone (iPhone, Android, Samsung etc). In other words, without the changing your account settings (enabling location) you can simply publish once a link to your location. Some form of check-in for Twitter. Mobile site:

http://servletsuite.com/geotwit

You can use also the following short URL http://bit.ly/dCnvBj, or load it via the following QR-code:

Friday, July 01, 2011

Our mashup Info from Twitter has been updated. It lets you pickup from the social graph other resources, associated with the given twitter account. It is a dead simple way to discover who is your new follower and/or who you follow to in Twitter. WHOIS for Twitter.

You can directly type a name for twitter account on the mashup's page or pass it as a parameter: